


Lifeline

by predilection



Category: Kamen Rider - All Media Types, Kamen Rider Ex-Aid
Genre: Gen, Heisei Generations Final, Hurt/Comfort, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-30
Updated: 2019-05-30
Packaged: 2020-03-29 14:38:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19021954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/predilection/pseuds/predilection
Summary: Parado was gone for two years.





	Lifeline

**Author's Note:**

> A little scene that takes place post- _Heisei Generations Final_ because the movie never properly acknowledged what it meant that Parado was stuck in the Build world for as long as he was.

Emu jolts awake clutching his chest. 

He knows what woke him. He can feel Parado's presence on the other side of his bedroom wall just as he can feel the echo of Parado's pain in his heart. It's almost unbearable and in an instant, Emu is throwing off his covers and rushing out of his room. He finds Parado sitting on his couch, his head in his hands.

"Parado?"

Parado startles and lifts his head, a furrow in his brow. "Emu?" 

He looks miserable, his eyes carrying a heaviness to them that they didn't before, and the pain in Emu's chest somehow multiplies. He closes the space between them and offers Parado a small smile as well as a hand up. "Come on."

"Emu?" Parado asks again, but he takes Emu's offered hand and lets Emu pull him to his feet. He also lets Emu pull him in the direction of the bedroom, and it isn't until Emu gently pushes him down onto the comforter that Parado asks, "What are you doing?"

Emu crawls onto the other side of the bed and tugs at Parado until they're curled towards each other like parenthesis. It's a tight fit, their legs tangling, and Emu reaches out and presses his palm over Parado's heart. 

Lying together like this isn't something they do, but it feels like the right thing to do -- especially after they were ripped apart -- especially after they were forced learn what's like to reach out to one another and find nothing but echoing emptiness. "I don't want you to be alone tonight," Emu tells him.

One of Parado's hands comes up to Emu's chest and his fingers dig into the fabric of the t-shirt Emu is wearing. He lets out a soft sound, halfway between a sigh and a sob, and Emu slides his other arm over Parado's side to his back, pulling him closer.

With the proximity, the already painful anguish Emu feels from Parado becomes razor sharp and the depth of his loneliness is staggering in its ache. The week Emu spent without him was lonely and distressing but it wasn't anything like _this_. It reminds him that Parado was gone for two years. Two years in a strange world on the brink of war. Two years of fruitlessly searching for Emu's powers. Two years of being alone. Two years of not knowing if he'd ever find a way home again. 

The experience shook him, hurt him in ways that Emu can barely comprehend, and he leans into their connection desperate to soothe, reminding Parado that their link is back and alight with both of their souls once again. "I'm here," he tells Parado, and through his thoughts, he sends everything he doesn't say: how sorry he is that this happened, how much he wishes he could've spared him this, how he's not alone anymore.

In response, Parado curls into himself, making himself smaller, and he tucks his head under Emu's chin. "Emu," he says, and the noise that escapes his throat is definitely a sob this time. He clings to Emu like he's a lifeline as he breaks down, shaking apart in Emu's arms. Emu blinks away the tears in his own eyes and rubs Parado's back, offering him all he can and all he is.

Slowly, so slowly, he feels the agony emanating from Parado lessen the slightest bit. It's not much, but it's enough that Emu presses his face into Parado's hair and sighs in relief, and as Parado's breathing finally begins to even out, he holds Parado tighter, refusing to let him go.


End file.
